Fun Investigations Versus Private Investigations

One question I seem to be asked a lot since I have started being more open about being a paranormal investigator is if I only do private investigations or if I do “fun” investigations. Yes, I do both. Just because I help families and spirits, doesn’t mean I don’t love to do more relaxed investigations too.

When I travel I love to hit up tourist ghost stuff whether it is haunted pub crawls, ghost walks, or renting a place that is supposedly haunted for the night for a more relaxed investigation. Even when I was with paranormal groups, we occasionally enjoyed investigating popular haunted tourist locations. It’s a great way to practice our skills, learn new equipment, and conduct experiments that we normally don’t get a chance to do in private investigations. While conducting these so called fun investigations, I still stick to my rules. If I happen to get any decent evidence, I still want it to hold up to my regular evidence.

The touristy locations can provide unique settings to investigate but also unique challenges. Most places are too busy and too noisy to conduct EVP sessions. Cell phones and other technology that people walking by the location may have can interfere with most ghost equipment. There will probably be people there who may accidently cause anomalies. I’ve seen people get really excited because they took a picture during a fun investigation and something pops up. Most often it is jewelry or clothing that is causing the reflection or simple dust. If it is someone who is on the tour/ pub crawl/ public investigation for fun, I don’t try to point out the flaws in the evidence or try to debunk it because I don’t want to crush their joy. If it is someone who is truly wanting to learn how to investigate I am more than happy to help them.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try doing investigations at these locations. This is a great time to practice with the equipment, especially new equipment that you haven’t practiced with that much yet. Nothing worse than showing up at a client’s house for a proper investigation with equipment that you don’t know how to use, don’t understand the kinks that come with the equipment, or whether it is picking up something paranormal or not. If you don’t live in a haunted house, relaxed investigations are perfect for practicing with your equipment.

So called fun investigations are great for trying experiments. I mentioned in a previous post about some of the experiments that one of my previous teams would do. Doing experiments like that are a great way to see what helps bring stronger evidence. If you are in a period home, dressing up from that period or bringing objects from that period are great suggestions. I really recommend the EVP experiment if it is a location you have been to before and have EVPs. Be sure to research the location you’ll be investigating. If someone that didn’t speak English passed away in the location or has ties to the location, either bring a translator or record a message in that language to be played during the investigation. If you do play a message, I recommend doing it more than once throughout the investigation just in case the spirits didn’t hear it or weren’t in the mood to talk the first time.

Do keep in mind that just because this is fun or relaxed investigation, this isn’t time to start imitating shows like Ghost Adventures or other shows that like to provoke spirits. Don’t yell at them to show themselves or invite them to hurt you or curse at them because you don’t think you are getting any evidence. Spirits are trained monkeys. They used to be human. Treat them with respect and you’ll get more evidence than if you were rude. If you are rude or threatening, you don’t know what sort of harm you are doing to the spirit or to future visitors. Even if the hauntings claim to be evil or demonic, treat it with respect. It most likely is normal things being confused for something paranormal or a spirit trying to just protect itself or it’s home. Be smart and be kind when you go on any kind of investigation. If you go on any fun investigations or know of cool places to check out, let me know in the comments below.